Chase Away The Blues Cauliflower Soup

Darsh loves soup. She loves em thick, she loves em clear, she loves em creamy or full of vegetables, or shredded meat. She loves em red, white, yellow, err… orange. Darsh Loves Soup. To us, spoonfuls of good, delicious soup is really the best thing to shove in your mouth when you are in the doldrums. It warms your belly, chases away the chills and makes you believe all your troubles may soon be over, as long as the soup doesn’t run out. Well this is one of those soups.

And it has blue cheese! Use whichever you like – Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola… anything. But don’t go too cray cray on them blue-veined goodness as this is strong stuff and you do not want to overpower the soup. The star here is the hearty, healthy cauliflower. Now let’s get cooking.

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
• 1 medium onion, rough chopped
• 1 stalk celery, rough chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup yellow dhal mash (toor dhal)
• 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 900ml chicken or vegetable stock [we used 1 Knorr chicken cube]
• 1/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled [or more if you are blue cheese crazy!]
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Water, if needed
• 1 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted
• Spring onions, chopped

Instructions

1. In a pot, heat up the olive oil and throw in the onions, celery, garlic and sweat them out a couple of minutes over gentle medium heat.
2. Introduce the cauliflower to the party and cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until the florets get a slight colour to them.
3. Pour in the stock and season the mix. You can add some water to ensure the vegetables are covered. [If, like us, you are using the chicken stock cube, you might want to hold off on the salt as the cube can already be quite salty]
4. Bring to a slow boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are soft, and the cauliflower florets, especially, are knife-tender. Add the lentil mash and blue cheese during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
5. Blend the mixture to a nice loose puree and strain to remove any lumps.
6. Pour the mixture back into the pot and reheat. Add the milk, starting with 1/4 cup. Taste, adjust seasoning and add more milk if needed. You can add more water if the mixture is too thick.
7. Top each serve with toasted sesame seeds and spring onions.

Note

Darsh normally precooks the lentils till they become mushy, and stores em in the freezer for later use. They are great for adding body and thickening soups. But if you don’t already have lentil mash calling out to you in the freezer, then just add the uncooked lentils into the pot after the stock and allow it to cook alongside the cauliflower. Easy peasy.